Hibs hoping return of star man McGrath and 'ruthless' approach to defending sparks season revival
St Mirren at Easter Road represents daunting test for home team in need of boost
Jamie McGrath’s return to full fitness may have come an hour too late to seriously impact on a painful Edinburgh derby defeat. But the brightest creative spark in the Easter Road squad will undoubtedly be welcomed back when he lines up against St Mirren today.
In 30 minutes plus change as a substitute against Hearts on Tuesday night, the attacking midfielder arguably carried more threat than some of his team-mates managed in the full 90. With a dozen games of the campaign to go, and seven to be played before the split, Hibs boss David Gray will be hoping to keep the Irishman in pristine condition.
Ex-Buddies ace up against old side again
Providing an update on the former Aberdeen and St Mirren playmaker, who had missed two fixtures with a groin/hip problem, Gray said: “Jamie's good. If you'd asked him, he'd have been okay for the derby, probably, but he hadn't trained very much.
“The positive thing with Jamie was that he hadn't been out for that long so he wasn’t going to decondition that much. And the type of injury he had, it was something that he came back from pretty quickly.
“He'd played a lot of minutes up until that point as well, so it's not as if he's starting from scratch or didn't have the bank of minutes beforehand. “That was why there was no concerns over getting half an hour in him. He’s certainly had no ill-effects since then, he’s trained since then so, if selected, he’ll be available, which is good because obviously he's been a very effective player for us this season.
“Even in moments when he came on in the derby, you can see he has that quality to unlock defences at times. It’s good to have him back.”
Flexibility and professionalism key assests
Explaining what McGrath brings to the squad, Gray said: “I think what he's shown is his flexibility, with and without the ball. He's played a few positions for me.
“The first time I put him on the team sheet and you saw him playing left wing-back, would anybody expect him to go and play there? Probably not.
“You ask Jamie, tell him: ‘This is what I'm thinking.’ And he says, ‘Absolutely, no problem.’ That's just how he is as a professional – desperate to play as much as he can. He does everything properly all the time.
“He's a very versatile player who, tactically, gets it when you speak to him. But he's also really hard working and always tries to improve his game.
“He’s been a very good addition, as you'd expect; someone who we've always identified who has also been successful in the league. He's constantly trying to improve.
“He's got the opportunity to try and push himself back into the Irish national team, and I think that's something he's trying to do. He's got a few caps already, so he wants to keep adding to that. I'm sure that will be a big motivation for him as well moving forward.”
Hibs definitely lacked some oomph in the final third against Hearts. An issue that was compounded by the nature of the late goal conceded.
‘Five or six to blame’ for late goal at Tynecastle
Gray insisted that coaching staff and players had been looking to address the failings exposed by conceding just two minutes from the end of regulation time, saying: “You don't just hope that it goes away, that it’s not going to happen again. You have to address it.
“So when you come in and you do the debrief, it's not a personal attack on anybody. It's a lesson for everybody.
“How can we manage that situation better? If I was to say at that moment how many people could have done better for the goal, it wasn't one person; it was five or six people who could have done something different at the time.
“You need to feel the disappointment after the game and think to yourself: ‘I don't want that to happen again, so what can I do to prevent that?’ And my job, and the job of the rest of the staff, is to make sure we educate the players to get an idea of why that decision was made, but also what we can do to prevent that moving forward.
“Ruthlessness is a good word. Desire, determination, everything it takes to win a game of football, or even just to make sure you don't lose
“There are lessons all the time. Players are human. They're going to make mistakes.
“My job is to make sure they do it as little as possible. Or that they learn from the mistakes as quickly as they can to try to prevent it happening again.”